I have been meaning to get this post up for about two weeks now…. I have recently been teaching a lot of students with a wide range of abilities, mostly with the jazz band I teach, but also in some master classes at local high schools here in Hillsborough.
While teaching these master classes I have had many students ask me about the higher range of the saxophone, commonly referred to as the Altissimo range.
Saxophone altissimo is generally considered to be any note that is higher than written high F# which is considered to be the highest note in the saxophones regular range. Altissimo is produced by the player using various voicing techniques such as air stream, tongue, throat and embouchure variations to disturb the fundamental of a note which results in one of the higher overtones dominating.
I personally do not use Altissimo in my playing very often. Altissimo is something that I have yet to study and I feel that I need to keep on working on playing the notes I know let alone add notes to this range.
I do realize that many of my students do want to know more about this so I told them that I would post some ideas and areas to start looking.
Here’s a great site for fingerings which is half of the battle: http://tamingthesaxophone.com/saxophone-altissimo.html
Be sure to check out the side panel for other great info about common saxophone licks and tricks.
Also: http://www.wfg.woodwind.org/sax/
Overall if you are a Saxophonist at any level and you have not signed up for this site you are surely missing out on a invaluable resource.
Get on it today!
If anyone has anything to add please comment and I will be sure to revise or add to this list.
Here is just a small example of Altissimo and Multiphonics in use, enjoy!
Tags: Altissimo, Brecker, Delta City Blues, Michael Brecker, Sax, Sax on the Web, Sax on the Web forum, Saxontheweb, Saxonthewebforum, Saxophone
Leave a Reply